Theona sighed as Tanris backed away a few steps, then stopped, shaking his head. "I've never seen the likes of that, girl, and I've met three powerful witches and at least two actual mages at the High Lord's Palace in Nur`li'sa at times over the years."

Theona sighed again, then slowly approached him. "Tanris, I vow before your Lady De'mitra and any other gods here that I will do no harm to anyone unless they harm or attempt to harm myself or anyone who travels with me, on my honour and my life."

A flash of lightning coming from the nearly clear sky startled Theona badly, she saw Tanris flinch in surprise. What startled both even more was the strong yet very female voice coming from somewhere near them, "Accepted, Theona of Earth, on your honour and your life."

Theona gasped in shock, her legs wobbling violently, then she fell to the ground, landing on her butt on the grass near the fire pit. "Fear not, Theona of Earth," the voice continued, "so long as you are honest and true, I and my brothers and sisters will have no cause to harm you. The fact that you could make such a vow so soon after we brought you here stands high in your favour at the moment. Be well, Theona of Earth."

Theona hadn't been watching Tanris, but when she looked up again, she figured he must have been just as shocked, as he was leaning against the side of his large wagon, shaking his head and moaning, she thought she could hear him say, "Lady De'mitra" once or twice.

The sense of an unseen presence faded, and Theona and Tanris were eventually composed enough to stand unsupported once more. Theona looked over at him, a weak smile on her face as she asked, "Did you mention Lady De'mitra just now?"

"That I did, lass, for it was She who spoke to ye just now, ye have been very highly honoured."

"Honoured? What do you mean?"

"Ye made a vow, lass, and She accepted it. Not only that, but She gave her word that ye will not be harmed by them without just cause. To top it off, She and the other gods think well of ye because ye made that vow, ye stand in their favour. She then wished ye well."

"So, as long as I act honourably and uphold that vow, you think she and the other gods will continue to favour me to some extent?"

"Something like that, they'll cause no direct harm to ye. I think ye have been blessed by her, Theona, it's been said many times over the centuries that Her wish for someone to be well brings nearly perfect health for the remainder of that person's life. Of the few I've heard about, the one exception was because the person was present during a major plague, they survived with much less harm than most others there."

**********

Theona glanced at the fire in the pit, it was still burning brightly, the heat of the flames felt good in the slightly chilly evening air. "The fire is burning well, do you have a pot about this wide and this deep?" She spread her hands sideways, then up and down to show the size needed.

Tanris thought for a moment, then nodded, "I have one slightly bigger than that, I'll get it from the wagon."

"Thank you, Tanris, might I use that small hatchet for a moment, I want to cut several branches and make a spit for the fire."

Tanris returned in a moment with the pot and the hatchet, then pointed to the smaller path along the side of the mountain. "There's plenty of deadfall, branches still on the pieces, about ais'senv'k'nek along that path, ye should find what you need there."

She thanked him and walked slowly along this second path, following it around the gentle curve of the mountain. A few minutes walk brought her to the place where she could see various pieces of dead wood, from hand's width to full trees, scattered all over the very slight slope. She wandered from piece to piece looking, chopping off a suitable branch now and then, until she had all she needed to make a spit. She then turned around, the light of the moon showed the path off to her left; she returned to the path and soon after, to their campsite.

She returned the hatchet, asked for some rope to bind the sticks together and quickly built the two base parts for the spit, placing one on each side of the fire. She then took the longest stick, slightly over a par'k'nek in length, then picked up the pot, sliding the stick between the pot's narrow metal handle and the pot itself, before lowering the stick onto the two base pieces, which she had stuck into the ground.

Theona walked to the wagon, asking Tanris for two large vis'nifs and water for the pot, then with the items in hand, returned to the area near the fire; she poured some water into the pot, then poured a bit of the water into a small wooden bowl she pulled from her pack. She used her hands to give the two vis'nifs a quick scrub, then using the top of a low, flat stone nearby, she quickly cut them into small chunks using a knife she had also retrieved from her pack, and dropped them into the pot to cook. She then picked up the mushrooms she had unknowingly dropped at some point earlier, most likely in her surprise at the voice coming from nowhere, rinsed them in the water as she had done with the vis'nifs, then set them on the flat rock, using one last stick she had cut and stripped of bark to give the pot a brief stir.

"Tanris," she yelled, "cut some meat off that carcass, enough for both of us, please!"

Tanris appeared a few minutes later, carrying what looked to be half a flank from the small carcass, and handed it to her. He watched as she rinsed it like she had done with the vegetables, then used her knife to cut it into chunks, tossing them into the pot with the chopped vis'nifs. She noticed him watching, smiled and said, "I'm making a simple stew, I'll let this cook for a while before I add the mushrooms to it."

Tanris returned the smile. "I've never seen a knife like that, may I look at it, please?"

Theona laughed and handed it to him. "Where I came from, a knife like this is illegal, carrying one is a crime. I use it for camping."

The knife Tanris was looking at so keenly was a blade, split in two parts, each about three mik'k'neks long, that fit into the handle of the knife itself when closed. The button triggered the release of the two part blade, a quick wrist snap would bring the second part into line, forming the complete knife. Theona had found the knife at a flea market across town from where she had lived, and had bought it for $25, knowing it was worth much more. Theona giggled at the rapt fascination Tanris was showing for the knife, she guessed he had never seen anything like it.

"Quite a nice knife you have here. Things like this are common on your world?"

"Single blade ones are much more common there, knives like that one you're holding are hard to find, but available if you look hard enough."

Tanris handed the knife back to her, Theona set it beside the mushrooms on the flat rock.

There was silence between them for a while. Tanris eventually sat on the ground near the fire, basking in the warmth of the flames. As the vis'nifs and the meat cooked in the pot, Theona used the stick to stir it now and then, until Tanris offered to get a large wooden spoon. He strode over to the wagon, spent a minute or two looking through some containers before finding one, then brought it to Theona by the fire.

Theona laughed to herself, then said, "I completely forgot to ask you if you had a spoon for the pot. Thank you."

He chuckled, saying, "I didn't even notice until a moment ago, a spoon is just one of many items I carry and use regularly."

Theona stirred the pot once again, prompting Tanris to say that it was already starting to smell good. Theona laughed, telling him it would be a while before the food was ready, then she used the knife to chop the mushrooms, throwing them into the pot with the vis'nifs and meat.

**********

While they were waiting for the food to be cooked, they relaxed, enjoying the warmth of the fire until Tanris stretched for a moment, then turned to face her and asked, "Lass, what language have we been speaking since we met earlier?"

She turned to him, surprised by the question. "Why, English, I know no other languages."

"What is this English ye mention? I have heard of no such language in all my years. Speak it for a moment."

Theona quickly said, in English, "I appreciate that you have been nice to me, thank you."

Tanris looked confused. "I understood not one word of that, lass, so what am I speaking now?"

Now it was Theona's turn to be confused. "If it isn't English, then I have no idea. Please enlighten me."

"Lass, Theona, you have been speaking the common or trade tongue as if ye had been born here and had spoken it all your life."

Theona was very surprised and showed it, then turned away after a moment and stirred the pot again.

Tanris shrugged, then spoke, "Perhaps it is a gift from the gods so that ye can understand people here."

Theona lost herself in her thoughts, occasionally stirring the pot as a second moon began to show over the eastern horizon.

**********

Eventually, the food was ready, Theona asked Tanris to get two bowls bigger than the one she had so she could serve the food. Tanris didn't want to go anywhere, he'd been itching to get at what was in the pot for some time, but he nodded and headed to the wagon. He returned a few minutes later with two bowls that might have passed as small tureens on Earth and handed them to her, along with a metal spoon.

He had also brought what looked like a ladle, which she then used to transfer the food from the pot to the bowls. When one was full, she handed it to him, then took the second bowl and filled it about halfway, setting it on the ground before she carefully removed the pot from the fire. She set the pot on the top of the flat rock, pulled the stick out and dropped it on the ground, then picked up her bowl and began eating.

Both Theona and Tanris were intent on the food, a small smile could be seen on Tanris' face, he obviously liked it, he hadn't tasted something this good that hadn't been cooked on a stove for a long time. Camp food, for him, was usually just enough to keep one going.

He cleared his bowl in what felt like about fifteen minutes to Theona, then looked in the pot to see if there was any left. When he saw that there was, he used the ladle to fill his bowl about halfway, leaving the rest for Theona in case she wanted another helping.

She finished hers just after he refilled his bowl, it was a bit odd because the spoon was made for people his size, not hers, and barely fit into her mouth. She realized she was still slightly hungry, checking the pot, she noticed there was a bit left and poured it into her bowl.

When they had finished eating, Tanris picked up the pot, collected the bowls, spoons, knife and ladle, and walked down the mountain; after several minutes of walking, he found a stream that spawned from a small pool and used the stream to wash everything.

Theona relaxed for a bit, seeing he had decided to do the dishes and spent the time in the fire's warmth looking up at the night sky. She couldn't see a single constellation that she recognized, this sky was not the one she knew. She saw that one group of stars looked vaguely like an olden day plow, another like a trident, a third like a large spoon, a fourth like a box with a handle sticking out of one side, a fifth looked sort of like the Big Dipper from home but five sided so the angles were different, those were the ones that had a recognizable shape.

She was still looking up at the stars when he returned, placing the pot, bowls, spoons and ladle in the wagon before returning to the fire. He handed the knife to her, surprised that she chose to place it fully opened on the flat rock beside her, then shrugged and forgot about it.

The two of them relaxed for a while, watching the night as more stars became visible, then the third moon showed on the horizon.

He noticed her looking at the moon just showing to the east, then the others. "You seem fascinated by the moons. These three are in orbits that are fairly close to each other, but not close enough that they would collide, and they usually show up on a daily or nightly basis. The other two moons are farther out, just within the gravitational well, and their orbits are longer, they can be seen here about every two nights.

Theona was startled when he mentioned the gravitational well. "You know about gravity? I'm surprised, we didn't discover gravity initially until about 350 years ago, and modern theories that expanded our knowledge of it within the last hundred years."

"Ahhhh, well, we have known about gravity here for close on to a thousand of our years, perhaps slightly longer than that."

"Hmmm, we'll need to talk about scientific discoveries at some other time, I'm ready to sleep."

"Give me a moment, it's a warm night, we can sleep by the fire." He then wandered off to the back of the wagon, opening the heavy tarp, then grabbed some items before letting the tarp fall again and striding back to the campfire.

"Here is a heavy ground sheet, put it on the ground, then ye can cover yerself with this," as he tossed her a light blanket.

She spread the heavy sheet out on the ground, then used her pack as a pillow, covered herself with the blanket and was asleep in minutes.

**********

She slept deeply for some time, occasionally shifting position to become more comfortable.

She had no idea what time it was, but she was awakened by what sounded like an animal walking not far from their fire. She threw the blanket off, rolled toward the flat rock, picked up the knife and stood up to face what looked like a very large six legged cat.

She sensed Tanris waking on the other side of the fire, then picking up the stick that had been used to hold the pot over the fire while the food was cooking, waiting to see what would happen.

She faced the cat, prepared to defend herself, but wasn't prepared when it spoke, "Star Lady, I am Shar'Nel Mak'ris, I come to walk with you."

Tanris rolled out of his bed, dropping the branch, then bowed to the great cat. "Welcome, Shar'Nel Mak'Ris, you honour us with your presence." He turned to Theona, explaining, "Mak'Ris is his clan name, it is an honoured clan, they've fought beside us many times. Shar'Nel is his personal name, or one of them, that he gave it at all means that he feels he can trust us with his life and honour."

Theona nodded and bowed to the great cat. "Welcome, Shar'Nel Mak'Ris, to our humble camp. You give us great honour."

The cat nodded before he replied, "How can I not, Star Lady, you who will save our world in the times ahead?"